Queen Elizabeth II (Update: the Queen has passed) (2 Viewers)

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Grandadmiral said:
Wait, so what's the rationale of the official coronation taking place a year from now? Is there some official grieving period before it can take place?
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I hadn't heard it was that long. I had assumed it would be soon. Wow. A year.
 
Madmarsha said:
I hadn't heard it was that long. I had assumed it would be soon. Wow. A year.
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That's how it works. He's King immediately, but the official coronation takes place months after, partly out of tradition, and partly because it takes months to arrange.

E.g. Elizabeth became Queen on February 6th, 1952, but her coronation was June 2nd 1953.
 
Geldo said:
This doesn't mean I hate the Queen or anything - I never met her, never spoke to her, have no idea what's she's like as a person and have no real connection beyond seeing her on TV. I just don't understand people grieving for someone they don't know....
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My take on it is, from most accounts I've seen throughout my life, she was a kind, compassionate, person, who pretty much everyone who met her liked.

And if you were going to have someone given vast wealth and privilege by virtue of birth in return for acting as a symbolic figurehead, she was about as good a person for that as you could ask for.

But that doesn't mean we should be giving vast wealth and privilege to anyone by virtue of birth.

Reactions here are all over the place, from cancelling things left, right, and center (like this weekend's football fixtures) out of respect - which I don't feel is entirely necessary personally - to, well, things like this:

 
Geldo said:
I empathise with the young girl in the video earlier who was trying to be desperately polite and inoffensive but had the courage to say she wasn't a fan of the Royals.

It may seem quaint to people from other countries but the whole British honors system and nobility reinforces the ancient notion that some people are born superior to others and, as an accident of birth, are deserving of immense influence, power and wealth whatever the content of their character. The Queen's middle son is a good example!

For the vast majority of us who are not ennobled (we are called commoners by the way) - it means we are brought up to believe we are lesser citizens of our own country and need to call the countless b@st@rd children of blood-soaked Norman warlords, a German ethnic cleanser (ask the Scots about George II), and a handful of fat gout-ridden drunks (Henry VIII, George IV, Edward VII etc) our betters. Royal illegitimates and distant descendants make up much of the British aristocracy.

Aristocrats also have the right to call themselves Lord, Sir, Your Highness etc; to get paid a daily fee for entering the most glamorous gentleman's club in the world (The House of Lords pays a daily attendance allowance of £323 plus meals - which is about the same as a poor person gets a month on universal credit); to shape the laws of this country even though none are elected; and to exercise local power over their shire-county communities where they are almost always the major land owner (and therefore employer).

This doesn't mean I hate the Queen or anything - I never met her, never spoke to her, have no idea what's she's like as a person and have no real connection beyond seeing her on TV. I just don't understand people grieving for someone they don't know....
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At about the 30 second mark....
 
Geldo said:
I empathise with the young girl in the video earlier who was trying to be desperately polite and inoffensive but had the courage to say she wasn't a fan of the Royals.

It may seem quaint to people from other countries but the whole British honors system and nobility reinforces the ancient notion that some people are born superior to others and, as an accident of birth, are deserving of immense influence, power and wealth whatever the content of their character. The Queen's middle son is a good example!

For the vast majority of us who are not ennobled (we are called commoners by the way) - it means we are brought up to believe we are lesser citizens of our own country and need to call the countless b@st@rd children of blood-soaked Norman warlords, a German ethnic cleanser (ask the Scots about George II), and a handful of fat gout-ridden drunks (Henry VIII, George IV, Edward VII etc) our betters. Royal illegitimates and distant descendants make up much of the British aristocracy.

Aristocrats also have the right to call themselves Lord, Sir, Your Highness etc; to get paid a daily fee for entering the most glamorous gentleman's club in the world (The House of Lords pays a daily attendance allowance of £323 plus meals - which is about the same as a poor person gets a month on universal credit); to shape the laws of this country even though none are elected; and to exercise local power over their shire-county communities where they are almost always the major land owner (and therefore employer).

This doesn't mean I hate the Queen or anything - I never met her, never spoke to her, have no idea what's she's like as a person and have no real connection beyond seeing her on TV. I just don't understand people grieving for someone they don't know....
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I feel like you are holding back...;)
 

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